


A Little Bit Lost Without You

by teenuviel1227



Category: Day6 (Band)
Genre: F/M, Music and Lyrics AU, Romantic Comedy, commission, fluff but there is some making out, it's cute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-12-27 04:06:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18296501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teenuviel1227/pseuds/teenuviel1227
Summary: When Brian and Ayeon are called in to write a title track for the country’s premiere pop duo, JaePil, love is the last thing on their minds. For Brian, a star on the rise who’d just gotten kicked out of his rock band, this is his second shot at stardom. And for Ayeon, a songwriter who spends her days working as a barista, this is her big break. Thing is, both of them haven’t ever worked with anyone else before--let alone someone who challenges their every move. Thing is, both of them find themselves falling in love for the first time in their lives spent writing love songs for a living.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a commission for Pau. :) Thanks for trusting me with this and sorry it took so long. 
> 
> The title and the song that Bri and Ayeon are working on is Oh Wonder’s Without You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrCJ81LZ0cg

Bright eyes, soft smile, hair cropped to her chin in a bob that frames her face, white cashmere sweater over blue jeans, pointed flats--the first time that he sees her, Brian thinks that he has Ayeon down pat: he’s spent most of his life around girls like her. Artsy, smart overachievers, probably with a conservatory background, probably a little entitled, probably had the acumen to bargain for more in her contract. 

Of course, there’s the fact that he finds her really pretty--but weren’t these girls always pretty? Charming, beautiful, cute. It was a prerequisite. That’s how they got you to do all the evil PR stuff. These were exactly the people that he’d fought tooth and nail against in music school and he thought that getting signed with his group, 3rd Degree, had finally been his way out of that--down with the system! Off to live the rock and roll dream!

And then, of course, the fall out, the fights over who should be front and center, whose face should be on the shirts and CDs--Terry was the lead singer but Brian was being put on all of the merch, Don was the drummer and felt blurred out of everything. There was a flurry of tension-filled press junkets and concerts and management meetings.

Brian just wanted to make music.

So he’d asked the merch to be re-done, asked for magazine covers to be re-shot so they all got equal coverage--and then, of course, Terry and Don had signed with another label without him knowing anyway. 

He’d tried and tried and lost his dream anyway.

And then, of course,  _ this _ \--today, he finds himself sitting at a table in a conference room on the fifteenth floor of the swanky Renaissance Entertainment building. Everything is made of glass, all the furnishings a white so stark that it hurts his eyes a little. He pulls his sunglasses down over his eyes from where they’re perched atop his head. He smirks as he hears Ayeon clear her throat, watches her pull a notepad out of her handbag that’s made to mimic a painter’s leather watercolor case. She’s purposeful, meticulous as she pulls a pen out, clicks it once, and writes the date on the top right-hand corner of the page.

In loopy handwriting on the first line: 

Songwriters’ Meeting

Brian feels a spark of competitiveness ignite in him. Song _ writers _ ? 

He’s a singer for fuck’s sake--an artist. He’s experienced. He’s Brian Kang aka YoungK, lead vocalist and guitarist of 3rd degree.

Well.  _ Was.  _

_ Why am I like this?  _ He tries to refrain, knows that he should trust Sungjin and his promise of  _ everyone who works at the company is awesome, I’m sure if they have a songwriter to work with you, they’ll have gone through the screening too _ \--but there’s that small part of him that’s selfish, that part of him that wonders why they had to give the project to  _ two  _ songwriters and not just one. 

Well, not just him. 

“Good morning, guys.” Sungjin walks into the room dressed in a crisp, black suit an carrying a leather suitcase. “So. Let’s get started.” 

 

 

He wears shades indoors. Up until he flips his sunglasses down onto his nose, Ayeon’s willing to give him the benefit of the doubt--sure, she’d been thrilled when Sungjin told her that he’d finally gotten her a legitimate songwriting gig and that she could finally quit her job at the cafe that he knew she was sick of. But then he’d told her that she’d have to work with someone else, that this other person would be in charge of the lyrics--and he’d added, it would be someone really established, as if she’d be excited about that.

Ayeon’s been pushed around by music snobs long enough to know that  _ really established _ didn’t necessarily mean  _ great workmate.  _

The thing is Ayeon knows all about Brian Kang, has heard a lot of things about Brian Kang--that he’s temperamental and hungry for fame and that he’d slipped the people making merch for his former band a couple of hundred dollars to put him in the foreground of all the photos.

And she knows a little bit about him too, firsthand: he’d gone to the cafe where she works in Myeongdong and ordered an iced Americano and refused to move to a table for one when the place was packed, had instead sat in the table for three for an hour before proceeding to eventually get up and leave without buying anything else. 

Ayeon is a patient person (up to a certain point), has a pretty good tolerance for giving people the benefit of the doubt--maybe it was just gossip, maybe Brian had been waiting for someone at the cafe. But then he glanced at her and frowned and put his shades on indoors and there are only two kinds of people Ayeon knows who do things like that: assholes and assholes, the kinds of customers at the cafe who threw fits if you misspelled their name. 

And today’s been a long day. Today there’d been too many people at the cafe who’d yelled at her, who’d gotten ticked off at her co-workers. And if there’s one thing that gets her goat it’s people who take advantage of other people, people who think they’re better than everyone. 

And as soon as Sungjin introduces them, her suspicions are confirmed. 

“So,” Sungjin says. “Let’s get started. Ayeon, this is Brian--we used to hang out on the gig scene back in Toronto. He’ll be handling the lyrics portion of the composition. He’s very hardworking and professional and I’m sure you guys will get along. Bri, this is Ayeon, one of my best friends from college and she’s a budding singer/songwriter who I’m sure will blow you away with her amazing composition skills.” 

“Hi.” Ayeon flashes him a smile. 

Brian flips his glasses up onto the top of his head before he sticking out his hand. 

“YoungK.”

“Oh.” Ayeon frowns, reluctantly shaking his hand, thrown off by his use of his stage name. “Pleasure.”

She’s ready to hate him and to back out and tell Sungjin it’s a no-go--but then she looks up and for some reason her heart is going a mile a minute, for some reason, it doesn’t feel as bad as it should because Brian’s smile is softer than she expects, his eyes gentler, sincere.

_ Pull yourself together.  _

“Okay,” Sungjin says, nodding and pulling two contracts out of his briefcase. “Now, let’s talk about the project."

 

 

For lack of a better term, Brian wants to keel over and sleep in a ditch for 50,000 years. The project is an OST single for an upcoming romantic comedy starring Lee Dong Wook and Park Min Young and is going to be sung by JaePil, one of the biggest pop duos since Sonny and Cher. Living together for almost five years and working out of their loft in Gangnam, Jae and Wonpil are the golden boys of the Seoul indie pop scene. The only problem being: Jae and Wonpil are also in the process of splitting up and haven’t spoken to each other in months and refuse to speak let alone see each other often enough to write a song and for a twelve-hour recording session--which is why Brian and Ayeon had been called in to take on this project. 

Of course, the catch which Sungjin only mentioned once they’d both signed their contracts--they’d also be in charge of performing the song to Jae and Wonpil, showing them the guide tracks and sheet music, and ultimately, making sure that they get the song recorded and ready before the management deadline.

There’s a stunned silence in the conference room as Sungjin closes the clasps on his suitcase.

“So, there you go. Pretty good deal, right guys?” Sungjin grins, his smile not quite reaching his eyes. 

“Look, Sungjin, I know you’re my friend but it’s unfair for you to dump this all on us. Why can’t  _ you _ be the one to teach them the guide tracks and sheet music?” Ayeon snaps. “Isn’t that your job?” 

Brian’s caught off guard at the sharpness of her tone, finds himself amused at the fact that Sungjin’s mouth is now hanging open as though he’d been slapped.  _ Huh. _ He grins, watching the blood rush to Ayeon’s cheeks as she gets up so quickly that the chair makes a sharp noise against the floor.  _ Interesting. _

“Making us babysit a couple on the brink of a breakup is just  _ too much _ and I’m not going to settle for that. I’d rather work at the cafe for the rest of my life than be treated like this. Unless you do something to help us out with this, we’re walking out--” she gathers her and Brian’s contracts, makes as if to tear them in two.

“--Ayeonnie,” Sungjin says, trying his best to calm her down. “I’m sure we can talk about this.” 

Brian blinks in disbelief. He grins. This is going to be more interesting than he’d initially expected.

Ayeon puts the contracts behind her back.

“--well, then. Talk. Or better yet, we’ll keep the contracts and you can call us when you’re ready to renegotiate. Right, Brian?”

Brian looks up to see Ayeon’s outstretched hand. He isn’t quite sure what he’s doing but he takes it, his hand tingling where it touches hers.

“Right.” Brian says, nodding as Ayeon pulls him to his feet and out the door. He glances back at Sungjin. “Call us.” 

 

“You’re crazy,” Brian says, breathless and giggling as the elevator doors shut behind them. “Also, it’s YoungK. You said Brian back in there--”

"YOU'RE CRAZY. We just ran out on a meeting and you're thinking about your NAME?" Ayeon lets out a peal of laughter, leaning back against the mirrored lift wall. “I don’t know what came over me either--I just--it’s been a long day and the thought of babysitting two spoiled pop stars who hate each other--” 

“--no, I meant crazy in a good way,” Brian says. “Like. That’s really cool. I wish more people had the nerve, the back bone to stick it to the man.” 

“You mean Sungjin.” 

“No, actually, I mean  _ the man,  _ the system, the corporate crazies.”

Ayeon laughs. “So Sungjin.”

“Right.” Brian leans back against the elevator wall. “Even if he’s our friend.”

“Even if he’s our friend. The anarchy knows no limits.” Ayeon grins and then her eyes drift down to their hands still holding each other. “Thanks. Um. You’re still holding my hand.” 

Brian feels his cheeks heat up, drops her hand. “Sorry.”

“So I guess we just wait for Sungjin to call?” Ayeon says. 

“Right,” Brian says, shrugging. He feels a trickle of panic set in.“I mean...he’ll call, right? ‘Cause. I really need this job right now.”

Ayeon grins. 

“He’ll call. Sungjin’s a suit but he’s not a robot. There’s a heart in there somewhere. You just kinda need to shock him a bit for it to start beating again.”

The elevator dings as they reach the ground floor. They step out of the lift and into the lobby, walk out into the cool evening. 

“So,” Brian says, running a hand through his hair. “I don’t think I made it clear earlier but it was a pleasure meeting you.” 

“Yeah,” Ayeon says, nodding. “Kind of you too. Unexpectedly.”

Brian raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean--”

“--I think we should work on stuff” Ayeon says, tucking her hair behind her ears. “I mean, I know it’s all up in the air but maybe we could try writing a couple of things anyway--”

“--yes,” Brian says quickly, pulling out his phone and handing it to her. “Yes, definitely. Let’s text. Give me your number and I’ll shoot you a missed call.” 

Ayeon inputs her number, hands the phone back to Brian. Brian grins, saves her number under  _ Impossible Girl _ . He gives her phone a ring, hangs up. Ayeon checks her phone, saves his number under  _ Not So Bad After All Kang.  _

“How about tomorrow, then?” Brian asks. 

“I have work--”

“--I can pick you up.” 

“Oh.” Ayeon lets out a small laugh. “I thought the point of exchanging numbers was to text about these things instead of standing on street corners having awkward conversations.”

“No, the point is just that if you find someone who you think is cool, you ask for their number.”

“You think you’re so smooth.” Ayeon rolls her eyes.

“Well, am I?”

Ayeon grins, fishes her earphones out of her pocket and slips them on. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow. 5pm, don’t be late.” 

And with that, she spins on her heel and heads down toward the subway.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 will be up this afternoon. :)

Brian’s nervous and on time--Brian hasn’t been either of those things for a really, really long time. He shows up at the cafe at 04:55, takes the corner table which is right in Ayeon’s line of sight, waves hi when he catches her eye. She waves, mouths  _ just a few more minutes _ before getting back to working the espresso machine.

He wonders if he’s brought everything they need: his acoustic guitar, his iPad, his earphones, a couple of random lyrics he’d written down on a table napkin last week. He checks his phone. Still no call from Sungjin. 

He watches as Ayeon sets a couple of lattes in powder-blue cups onto the tray and calls out a name before taking her apron off and emerging from behind the counter with her bag in tow. Today, she’s wearing a pale blue blouse tucked into jeans, her hair fastened with a barette on one side in a way that Brian finds maddeningly cute. 

“Hey. You ready?”

Brian nods, clearing the table of his bag to make room for her. 

“Yeah, I brought my guitar. Did you bring a keyboard or--”

“--you think we’re going to write stuff  _ here _ ?” Ayeon laughs.

Brian blinks. “Well yeah--I mean--where else would we go--”

Ayeon grins. “You’ll see. Come on.” 

  
  


Ayeon’s apartment is a small housing unit on the rooftop of a small building downtown, right above a Tarot & Crystals shop and a Lebanese deli that also sells shawarma lunch wraps. It’s small but delightful, with a small couch outside, making a makeshift porch of her front door. There are plants framing the ledge and a small coffee table on which rests a couple of small vases. 

Ayeon leads the way and grins as she unlocks the door, the ceramic wind chimes in the shapes of hearts clinking together. 

“Welcome to where all the magic happens.”

Brian grins as he steps across the threshold, leaving his shoes at the door. The place is small but simple and clean. The living room has a small sofa and a circular coffee table occupied by mismatched teacups. There are different photos stuck to the wall: Ayeon at a birthday party with her friends, Ayeon with people Brian can only assume are her parents, Ayeon in a concert shirt holding up a peace sign with the stadium behind her, Ayeon with a small, fluffy dog.

He’s hit with a sudden pang of nostalgia at the hominess of it all: that smell that’s partly old books, partly Glade air freshener, partly coffee brewed over the past few years, partly spritzes of her vanilla-scented perfume. The smells of home--a far cry from Brian’s modern serviced hotel-condominium that sits right in the center of Gangnam, with its floor-to-ceiling glass panels and the constant scent of hotel-grade antiseptic. He takes a breth thinks of his parents, all the way in Canada, thinks of their small house on the outskirts of Incheon before they’d moved, thinks of the trashy dorm that he’d shared with Terry and the guys and how they’d written their best music there before things went sour. 

_ I miss having a home.  _

“Are you having some sort of seizure that I should be worried about?” Ayeon’s watching him, her head tilted to one side, her expression nonchalant, but genuine concern written in the small crease that forms between her eyebrows. 

Brian lets out a small laugh. “Are we going to write songs or what?”

  
  


They end up writing out on the rooftop-slash-patio, with Brian playing acoustic guitar on the couch and Ayeon sitting across from him with the keyboard. The first time that Brian hears her voice, he’s thankful he’s wearing a long-sleeved shirt because he gets goosebumps from the tiny hairs on his knuckles to those on the back of his neck. The tone has a crisp, clear quality to it that Brian hasn’t heard in years. He closes his eyes.  _ How am I going to live up to this?  _ Everything is golden in the late afternoon sunlight, a soft, warm breeze drifting by, Ayeon’s voice carrying across the rooftop. And then Brian opens his eyes, realizing something.

“Did you just sing  _ blahblahblah _ without you?”

Ayeon lets out a laugh, her cheeks turning pink. “Yeah. What’s it to you?”

Brian grins. “Oh my god.” 

Ayeon raises an eyebrow. “What?”

“You can’t write lyrics.”

“I  _ can _ , it’s just that I don’t like talking about how I  _ feel _ \--” 

“--so  _ that’s _ the thing, huh,” Brian says, grinning. “Just when I thought I was going to be useless on this project ‘cause you’re pretty much perfect at everything. You’re in luck because my biggest problem has always been that I can’t shut up about how I feel to save my life.” 

“Har har,” Ayeon says. “You can thank me for your paycheck, then.” 

Brian grins, picking up his guitar. “Play the melody again.” 

Ayeon sighs but plays it again, the piano melody gliding across the keys. Brian taps his foot to the beat, strums a soft rhythm as Ayeon begins to hum to the melody. 

Brian grins, looks up at her before he starts to sing, filling the gaps in the words with his own as the sun bleeds orange into pink into gold across the sky.   


“Step out into the sun, skies above they radiate me. Lift up, carry the love--”

“--holy shit,” Ayeon stops playing, her mouth softly agape. “How did you  _ do that _ ?”

Brian laughs. “I don’t know. I just….just say things that seem to fit.” 

“Okay,” Ayeon says, nodding. “Wow. Alright. Okay. One more time.”

Brian grins at the excitement in her voice. “Alright. Count us in.”

  
  


“Count us in.”

“One, two, one, two three--” 

The guitar melody goes and Ayeon slips the keys in by the fourth beat. It’s the fifth day that they spend after her shift on their rooftop, writing songs, and Ayeon is sure about two things: first, that whether or not Sungjin ever calls them back, she and Brian will probably come up with a full-length album by the end of the month at this rate, what with the progress that they’re making, and second, that as much as she hates to admit it, she was dead wrong about Brian Kang. YoungK. Whatever. 

Whereas she’d thought he was rude and stuck-up and full of himself, he’s actually gentle and sweet in his own strange, callous way--he doesn’t ever tell her what to do, just kind of maddeningly  _ suggests  _ things, occassionally leaning over her shoulder to demonstrate the chord progression that he means. Initially, she’d thought that he would be the kind of person to take himself too seriously, to be consciously obsessing over his image. But in actuality, he’s kind of a dork who gets excited about take out and who likes singing along to old, early 2000s pop songs. 

And his voice. For the first time, Ayeon understands just why his band broke up. She’d heard their songs before and in them, Brian had always featured in the verses, the small bits of rap--nothing that really showcased the set of pipes he had, how he could sing something low and understated and in less than the time it takes to let out a breath, suddenly be hitting the highest notes, his voice dipping in and out of falsetto with the ease of a plane gliding across the sky. Ayeon hates to admit it, but she’s enamored. 

She hates to admit it but more than just writing songs, she kind of likes having Brian around. Try as she might to have turned her small unit into a home, she hadn’t really realized how lonely she’d been, how admittedly different living here in the city is from living in her hometown with her family, or even at the dorms with her roommates for the time that she was in college. She glances at Brian sitting cross-legged on the couch, strumming the guitar and singing, and wonders if her couch has always been this bright or if Brian Kang just had a way of lighting up a room.

“So that’s a total of three songs down now,” Brian says as the song comes to an end. He flashes her a grin and stretches, the motion pulling his shirt up so she catches a flash of skin and then it’s gone. He waves a hand in front of her face. “Earth to Baek Ayeon. You wanna order take out? I vote pizza.”

She grins. Definitely just that Brian Kang has a way of lighting up a room. 

“Yeah, Pizza’s fine.” 

“Half-Hawaiian, half-pepperoni?”

“As long as they keep your evil pineapples off my side of the pizza--”

“--look at us, bickering like an old, married couple.” Brian grins, shrugs. “It’s kinda nice.”

“Yeah,” Ayeon agrees under her breath. “It is.”

Brian reaches for his phone and then it rings. They glance down at the screen. Park Sungjin.

Ayeon clasps a hand over her mouth. 

Brian grins and picks up.

“Well, well, well, it took you longer than--” 

“--fine, fine. You guys win. Blahblahblah.”

Brian hits speaker phone. “I’m with Ayeon right now actually, so we’re going to double-gloat.” 

“You’re with Ayeon, huh? Where?”

“Her place.”

“HER PLACE???”

Brian’s cheeks flush red and Ayeon knows she’s blushing hard too. 

“Yah, Park Sungjin! Don’t get any dirty ideas in that big bobble head of yours,” she snaps. “We’ve been writing songs because we’re responsible people who actually want to do their jobs.”

“I think the lady doth protest too much.” Sungjin’s laugh crackles over the line.

“That’s out of context,” Brian says. “We didn’t murder anyone and we aren’t Lady Macbeth. So, what’s the deal?”

Sungjin sighs. “I think it was a mistake putting you two together. Now I’m going to be double-bullied for the rest of my life.” 

“Get to the good stuff, Sungjin!” Ayeon says. 

“Fine. Here’s the revised deal: you don’t have to babysit JaePil through the whole recording deal, you just have to spend an afternoon with them. They want to hear the song, they want you guys to listen to their version and evaluate whether or not it stays true, and then you guys are out and you get paid the same fee upfront plus an honorarium for helping with the recording. There will be proper credits in the album and a right to perform the songs without paying the label any royalties should you decide to sign with a record label in the future. Good?” 

Brian catches Ayeon’s eye and they’re both grinning.

“Sungjin-hyungie?” Brian says, his voice syrupy sweet. “

“AH, don’t Sungjin-hyungie me--”

“--did I ever tell you you were the best?”

“You’re just saying that.”

“No, it’s true,” Ayeon quips. “You’re the most considerate, absolute best--”

“--just show up. Thursday, 17th floor Studio A. I’ll send you guys the contracts for signing.” 

Click. 

Ayeon and Brian glance at each other and suddenly they’re both jumping up and down with joy, Ayeon climbing up and over the coffee table to tackle Brian in a big hug and Brian catching her in his arms until they’re both just kind of swaying together, ecstatic with laughter. 

“WE FUCKING DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BAEK AYEON YOU’RE A GENIUS! A CRAZY PERSON FOR BLOWING UP ON SUNGJIN AND WALKING OUT IN THE FIRST PLACE BUT HOLY SHIT--”

“--BRIAN KANG YOU TALENTED IDIOT, I SWEAR TO GOD I’M SO HAPPY I COULD KISS YOU--” 

“--oh.”

The swaying stops but now that they’re still, it’s the whole world that’s swaying, swirling around them in a strange haze. Ayeon’s heart is pounding a mile a minute and from how close she is to Brian, she can feel his heart racing too. What she does next, neither of them expects. Ayeon reaches up and brushes a strand of Brian’s hair away from his eyes before planting a soft kiss on his cheek. She hears his breath catch.  _ Probably just the excitement from the contract.  _

Brian lets out a soft laugh and kisses her on the forehead. 

“So. Pizza?"


End file.
